佛祖統紀 16.47

16.47

法師宗印。字元實。鹽官陳氏。號北峯。師慧力德隣。年十五具戒。首謁當湖竹菴。得教觀之旨。凡諸祖格言必誦滿千遍。入南湖修長懺。周氏延以菴居。以租量非法勸革之。歲減五百斛。往謁象田圓悟演。反質西來意。師答曰。有屈無叫處。演肯之。智者忌辰。夜炷香殿鑪悲泣失聲。演感其意以厚禮送歸南湖嘗思寂光有相之義。聞空聲云。寂光土體如水中月。資教空虛堂。延居座首。堂著宗極論。扶智涌事理各立一性之旨。師設九難。宗極為之義負。通守蘇玭觀不二門以文雖簡而昧其說。師撮示機要。玭即領會。白師座請居正覺。颶風飄蕩（颶音具。沿海諸郡多狂風。謂具四方之風也。東坡有颶風賦）僅存藏殿。師守死不去。風為之止。有請為廟神授戒去血食者。先感夢往赴他廟尸祝。神語求易祭者十數祠。遷主隱學。未久玭亦召還。要師偕行曰。盍西還相與弘贊。居東二十七年。至是復反淛右。貳上竺講止觀。深砭學者支離名相之病。圍座挾策。主者以得士為忌。去隱雷峯毛氏菴。問道者沓至。杜氏建普光一區。具禮迎之。禪講並行法道益盛。適德藏來。請師曰。肄業之地。思報久矣。歷遷超果圓通北禪。道德之譽既行。土木之績亦就。海空英辭靈山。舉以自代。詔可之。學徒五百咸服其道。宿弊舊習為之一革。寧宗素聞師名。召對便殿問佛法大旨。語簡理明。上大敬說錫賚甚渥。賜號慧行法師。嘉定六年。以營觀室。行化吳中。至松江弟子行一菴。謂其徒曰。吾化緣畢此。即右脇安庠而化。時十二月八日也。藏龕於慈雲塔旁。師三衣準律。五辛剛制。道力純至幽明俱感。格邪拯滯除瘵息癘。一有祈叩無不得愈。常謂講者須備三法。肅威儀以臨大眾。提大綱以盡文義。具宗眼以示境觀。備此三者依俙駕說。所著金剛新解。釋彌勒偈。簡示天親羅什同異之意。考正此經諸本。即則之文最為有據。述教義百餘章。尤為學者傳錄。嗣法有聞者。古雲元粹十餘人。日本傳教者。俊芿一人。仕官儒生受道者三數人。獨佛光法照繼世盛大。有光祖父之道。

Dharma Master Zongyin, courtesy name Yuanshi, of the Chen family of Yanguan, was styled Beifeng. The Master was neighboring in wisdom and virtue. At age fifteen he received the full precepts, and first visited Zhu'an of Danghu, obtaining the essential principles of the teachings and contemplation. Whatever standard sayings of the patriarchs he encountered, he unfailingly recited them a full thousand times. He entered Nanhu to cultivate the extended repentance. The Zhou family invited him to dwell in a hermitage; he admonished them to reform their unlawful rent measurements, reducing them by five hundred bushels a year. He went to visit Yan of Xiangtian (Yuanwu) and in turn questioned him on the meaning of [Bodhidharma's] coming from the West. The Master replied, "Suffering an injustice with nowhere to cry out." Yan approved of him. On the anniversary of Zhiyi's passing, he burned incense at night in the hall brazier and wept aloud; Yan was moved by his devotion and sent him back to Nanhu with generous gifts. He once reflected on the meaning of the Land of Quiescent Light possessing form; he heard a voice in the void say, "The substance of the Land of Quiescent Light is like the moon in the water." Xu Tang of Zijiao invited him to occupy the seat of head monk. Tang composed the Zongji lun (Treatise on the Ultimate Tenet) upholding Zhiyong's view that phenomena and principle each establish a distinct nature. The Master posed nine objections, and the Zongji lun was conceptually defeated. Controller-general Su Pin contemplated the Entrance to Non-Duality, but because the text was concise, he remained obscure about its explanation; the Master highlighted its pivotal essentials, and Pin immediately understood. Pin reported this to the Master's teacher, requesting that he reside at Zhengjue. A hurricane raged (the character ju is pronounced like ju; violent winds are frequent in coastal commanderies, meaning winds from all four quarters; Dongpo has a Rhapsody on the Hurricane), and only the Tripitaka Hall survived; the Master stood fast even unto death without leaving, and the wind ceased for him. When someone asked him to administer the precepts to a shrine deity to eliminate blood sacrifices, he was first moved by a dream to go to another shrine's medium; the deity spoke, requesting that the sacrifices be changed, in over a dozen shrines. He was transferred to preside over Yinxue; not long after, Pin was also recalled and urged the Master to accompany him, saying, "Why not return west and propagate [the teachings] together?" Having dwelt in the east for twenty-seven years, he now returned to Western Zhejiang. He served as assistant at Shangzhu, lecturing on the Great Calming and Contemplation, deeply lancing the students' ailment of dissecting names and characteristics. As students surrounded his seat holding books, the abbot became jealous of his winning people over, so he departed to live in seclusion at the Mao family hermitage on Leifeng. Those inquiring after the Way arrived in swarms. The Du family built the Puguang quarter and welcomed him with full ritual decorum. Meditation and lecturing proceeded together, and the path of the Dharma flourished all the more. Just then, an invitation came from Dezan; the Master said, "This is the place where I pursued my studies; I have long wished to repay it." He successively transferred to Chaoguo, Yuantong, and Beichan. His reputation for virtue and the Way having already spread, the achievements of his building projects were also accomplished. Haikong Ying took leave of Lingshan and recommended the Master to succeed him; an imperial decree approved it. Five hundred disciples were all won over by his Way, and long-standing abuses and old habits were completely reformed. Emperor Ningzong had long heard the Master's fame and summoned him for an audience in an informal palace hall, asking about the main tenets of the Buddhadharma; his words were concise and his reasoning clear. The Emperor was greatly reverent and pleased, bestowing very generous gifts and granting him the title Dharma Master Huixing. In the sixth year of Jiading, in order to construct a contemplation chamber, he traveled to convert people in the Wu region. When he reached the hermitage of his disciple Xingyi in Songjiang, he said to his followers, "My transformative affinity ends here," and then peacefully passed away lying on his right side; it was the eighth day of the twelfth month. His casket was entombed beside the Ciyun Stūpa. The Master kept the three robes in accordance with the vinaya and strictly refrained from the five pungent roots; his power in the Way was purely realized, moving both the unseen and the visible realms. He corrected evil, delivered the stagnant, eradicated consumptive illnesses, and quelled pestilence; whenever a prayer was offered, none failed to be cured. He often said that a lecturer must possess three dharmas: maintaining dignified deportment to face the great assembly; presenting the main outline to exhaust the meaning of the text; and possessing the ancestral eye to reveal object and contemplation. Only when possessing these three might one vaguely presume to lecture. He authored the Jin'gang xinjie (New Commentary on the Diamond Sūtra), explaining Maitreya's verses and concisely indicating the agreements and differences between Vasubandhu and Kumārajīva; his textual verification of the various editions of this sūtra, particularly regarding the words "jí" (即) and "zé" (則), was exceptionally well grounded. He composed over a hundred chapters on doctrinal meanings, which were especially transcribed and circulated by students. Among those who inherited his Dharma and attained renown were Guiyun Yuancui and more than ten others. As for those who transmitted the teachings to Japan, there was Shunjō alone. Among officials and Confucian scholars who received his Way, there were three or four. Only Foguang Fazhao succeeded him with great prosperity across generations, shedding luster upon the Way of the patriarchs.